Miggy and Hunter scratched from lineup

DETROIT — For the longest time Friday afternoon, there was no Detroit Tigers lineup posted.

Manager Jim Leyland had to wait and see who was healthy enough to suit up for him, checking on a laundry list of injuries with the training staff.

“I don’t have a lineup,” he grumped. “When I get a lineup, I’ll have a lineup for you.”

Then, after walking through the clubhouse with the lineup card in hand, whistling a cheery song, the Tigers skipper had to change his tune less than a half hour later, scratching two guys from the initial plan.

Miguel Cabrera was out of the starting lineup for the fourth straight game, still trying to allow his hip flexor to heal.

After initially being written in, Torii Hunter was a late scratch with the sore Achilles tendon that forced him out of Thursday’s game.

Don Kelly was removed from the lineup in favor of Ramon Santiago at third base, giving the Tigers more defensive flexibility on the bench.

And all that doesn’t even include the walking wounded — Omar Infante and Darin Downs, both of whom were in transit from rehab assignments — who were just passing through the locker room.

“Much better. He’s made real good improvement. Obviously, we held him out of the lineup today, to give him a chance to do some activity. He’s feeling a lot better, but he still feels like he needs another day or so,” head trainer Kevin Rand said. “You’d rather lose Miguel Cabrera for two, three games than two or three weeks. It’s important for us to make sure he’s right before we put him back out there.”

Cabrera’s been itching to get back on the field since Monday, the last time he appeared in a game.

“In Chicago the other night, when he went to the dugout, he went with his gloves and spikes. He’s a guy that wants to play. Make no mistake about it,” Rand said. “He’s had his glove and spikes ever since, after that first night.”

Still, it’s worth being cautious, even if the Tigers are only aiming to get him ‘playable’ rather than shooting for the elusive ‘100 percent.’

“Well, the thing is to get him playable. We’re looking to get him where he feels comfortable play, where he feels like he can go out and play,” Rand said. “If Miguel Cabrera tells me, ‘Hey, I think I need another day,’ you know what? He probably needs another day.”

Hunter initially thought he’d be able to go, saying “I’ll be in there tonight. Just gotta play smart, till it’s over with.”

Evidently the smart thing was to not play, after he tried to do some pregame activities, scratched with “continuing Achilles soreness.”

Hunter isn’t even sure when exactly it started. After the game Thursday, he blamed it on a new pair of dress shoes.

“That’s the only thing I can come up with, to have my Achilles sore, because I never had that before. I don’t remember an incident in the game, or anything. Maybe I did during the game, and I just don’t remember doing it. Maybe I stepped in a pothole or something,” he said. “The second inning, I felt it. Just a little sore. Then my last at-bat, I picked my leg up to put it back down to swing, and when I hit the ground, it’s kind of like, just shook a little bit. I was a little nervous, so I just kind of rolled off of it, so nothing would happen. It was a little sore.”

It was still sore before Friday’s game, but Hunter doesn’t feel like it’s something that’ll linger.

“It’s not serious. I’ve been playing so long, I know all the injuries. I know this one’s not going to hold me back,” said the 37-year-old, dismissing the thought that it had anything to do with his age. “It’s still something I don’t like, though. Nobody likes anything that you feel.”

Mixed rehab newsOn the shelf with rotator cuff tendinitis since July 7, Downs threw one inning at Class A West Michigan on Thursday, and is headed to Triple-A Toledo to continue his assignment before returning to the Tigers.

The news on Omar Infante was not as cheery.

The second baseman, sidelined by a bad ankle since July 4, played two rehab games at West Michigan, but came out of Thursday’s after feeling pain in his still-healing ankle in the second inning.

“It stings in the same spot,” Infante said. “That’s why came out yesterday. I tried to run hard and I felt pain.”

He was in Detroit Friday to be examined by the Tigers’ doctors.

“Doesn’t bother him fielding, doesn’t bother him hitting, but it did bother him trying to go full speed,” Rand said. “So he felt like it wasn’t quite ready to go full speed yet. So we brought him back, obviously reevaluate him. We’ve gotta get that other part back. We’ve gotta be able to get him to run full speed.”

After making the trip with the team to Chicago before starting his rehab stint, Infante had thought he’d be ready to come back as soon as this weekend.

That chance looks remote now.“I think one more week or two more weeks I feel better, y’know. It’ll make my ankle stronger. That’s what the trainers told me,” said Infante, who admitted the ankle still doesn’t feel great when he pushes off on defense, either, although the pain doesn’t show up when he’s strolling around the locker room.

“I felt better (in Chicago). But I tried to run hard and then I felt the pain. But I can hit good. I can swing and do everything without pain. But when I tried to run hard that’s when I felt it. ... When there’s pressure and I’m reacting explosive, that’s when I feel it.”

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Digital First Media. Read his “Out of Left Field” blog at opoutofleftfield.blogspot.com.